The Fourth Scandal

While most of the media are fixated on Benghazi, the IRS abuses, and the DOJ’s interest in reporters’ phone calls, the biggest scandal of all may be Kathleen Sebelius’ shakedown of health care companies to pay for activities Congress has refused to fund.

It is illegal for government officials to solicit money from companies they regulate.

Before Mr. Obama was elected in 2008, you may remember that the pharmaceutical industry was the Democrats’ favorite whipping boy.

But, in one of the most amazing turnabouts ever in Washington, PhRMA went from full-throated opposition to ObamaCare to full-throated support ― in just a matter of months.

On November 14, 2008, just a week after the election, The Washington Times reported that, “The nation’s largest pharmaceutical lobbying group is preparing a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign to tout the importance of free-market health care and undercut an expected push by the Obama administration for price controls of prescription drugs.” The article went on, “The stakes are especially high for drug makers, which stand to lose as much as $30 billion in revenue if President-elect Barack Obama‘s plan to let the federal government negotiate Medicare drug prices is implemented.”

Just nine months later, in August 2009, the publication Medical Marketing & Media was reporting just the opposite ― “PhRMA will launch a big advertising push for healthcare reform later this week, with T.V. spots airing in key states and on cable channels nationally.” The story continues, “News outlets including The New York Times and the Associated Press put spending on the ads in the range of $150 million ― a figure that PhRMA SVP Ken Johnson called speculative.”

What happened? The story quotes PhRMA president Bill Tauzin, “We were assured (by the White House): ‘We need somebody to come in first. If you come in first, you will have a rock-solid deal.’”

Apparently, PhRMA agreed to $80 billion in cuts aimed at filling the Medicare drug program’s “donut hole” and to spend $150 million in advertising to support Obama in exchange for a pledge that the White House would oppose price controls and re-importing drugs. And we haven’t heard a word of criticism of the pharmaceutical industry since then.

This time around it is the insurance industry that is being asked for favors ― to donate to Secretary Sibelius’ favorite “charity.” This is the very industry she directly or indirectly regulates.

The Ways and Means Committee is pretty concerned about this latest scam. It wrote a letter to the secretary which reminds her of the federal Anti-Deficiency Act. The letter goes on to demand answers to a series of questions about who exactly was solicited, by whom, and for what. Looks bad for the secretary.

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